- Several small towns in Île-de-France allow their inhabitants to turn on public street lighting on demand via an application
- The made in France application allows these localities to turn off public lighting at night – without having too much of an impact on the inhabitants
- The first municipality to have taken the plunge in 2021, Longpont-sur-Orge (Essonne) speaks of electricity bills reduced by a quarter
If you live in Île-de-France and your municipality turns off public lighting almost completely between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., it is possible that your town hall will still give you the possibility of turning on the surrounding streetlights via an application. for smartphones.
A report by our colleagues from Le Parisien tells the reasons why Longpont-sur-Orge (Essonne) chose to be the first to install the necessary infrastructure on its park of street lamps. Public lighting continues to be a major source of electricity waste.
Your street is off? You may be able to turn it on from your smartphone!
Waste which, particularly in this period of energy crisis, causes the use of carbon energy sources – which therefore causes more greenhouse gas emissions, and logically affects the environmental efforts of local authorities.
More than 20 years ago, we saw public lighting go out on many major roads and expressways, including on the outskirts of towns – for reasons of economy, but also because studies have shown that drivers tend to adopt more cautious behavior on poorly lit or unlit roads.
However, at a time of ecological transition, many localities are considering solutions to further reduce expenditure. This implies less use of public lighting. However, simply turning off public lighting immediately poses a problem.
Which is in fact the same one that caused the generalization of street lighting in cities: in some areas, walking around at night without any lighting causes at least a feeling of insecurity. Longpont-sur-Orge has chosen from 2021 to cut the pear in half, by installing a system that allows residents who wish to turn on the surrounding streetlights on request for a few minutes.
Everything goes through an application, I light up my street, developed by a small French company. A connected system must be installed in the streetlights covered by the system. The user, he has only to open the application which geolocates him, and to press on an icon in the shape of a light bulb. Then the streetlights come on.
Longpont-sur-Orge has so far only equipped its town centre, but the savings already made and the absence of an increase in crime is now pushing the town hall to consider extending the area to the entire town. Longpont-sur-Orge is not the only city to be connected to the J’ignite ma rue application.
At the end of 2021, the system was also deployed in Saint-Prix (Val-d’Oise). But also, far from the Île-de-France region, such as in Brittany, in Saint-Brieux. The Val Parisis agglomeration community closely follows the first experiences in the Val-d’Oise, particularly in terms of crime figures.
And here again, nothing indicates the slightest increase in incidents of this type in the municipalities that have chosen this solution. What do you think of this approach? Is this a good compromise to reduce the energy bill of communities? Share your opinion in the comments.
